New sound card and mp3 questions (1 Viewer)

[David_Merrow]

Hello, I am wanting to hook my computer up to my stereo, but my current sound card only has an analog out. This causes humming, so I want to get a digital card to eliminate this. My first question is will the Sound Blaster Live 5.1 be a good card for this? I want to get one as cheap as possible. My second question is should I get the retail box? I currently don't have any mp3 encoding software and the retail box comes with it. Or should I get the OEM box and get seperate mp3 software?

thanks,

David

 

[Hugh M]

just get the cheapest version. the best mp3 encoding software is called LAME and its free. you use EAC software to rip the CDs and it tells LAME to encode them to MP# in the background while you continue to rip.
do a search on the web for EAC and LAME, check out www.r3mix.net specifically.
for a good mp3 playback program you could go with something free and very popular like WinAmp. or pay a modest $20 fee for Media Jukebox, which is quite functional.
for sound cards though you should be able to get a decent analog out without a hum. It sounds like you may have some luck moving the plugs around with the stereo and the pc and also trying to have them both plugged in to the same outlet.
but if you really want digital output, I think there are Turtle Beach Santa Cruz cards, or Philips Acoustic edge cards that do a fine job at this. sound cards can really be the devil though. GOOD LUCK!

 

[David_Merrow]

Thanks for the replies.

I downloaded exact audio copy and LAME last night. The lame file I downloaded was LAM3-3.91.tar. How do I open this and get eac to recognize it?

David